by Ian Donnis and Scott MacKay

Darrell West to speak on election at Central Congregational Church

Darrell West, the former Brown political science professor and pollster, will analyze the election results in a Nov. 9 speech at Central Congregational Church in Providence.

West, who is now vice president of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., will speak in the ninth annual lecture of the church’s annual West series of speeches on politics and religion at the church, where he was an active member during the years he lived in Providence.

The event on Nov. 9th begins at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Central Congregational is located at 296 Angell Street on the city’s East Side, at the intersection of Diman and Angell Streets.

West’s talk will focus on how religion, demographics and politics affected the outcome of the 2012 election cycle. The tile of the speech is, “Election 2012, What Happened and What it Means for You.’’

West will take questions after his talk.

The author of 18 books, West founded the lecture series at Central Congregational while he was a member of the Brown political science faculty. At Brown, West taught American politics and media and politics. He was director of Brown’s Taubman Center for Public Policy and a well-respected pollster and political commentator on both Rhode Island and national politics.

Previous speakers in this lecture series include, E. J. Dionne, a Washington Post columnist; political analyst Juan Williams; Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans united for Separation of Church and State; Rev. Dr. James Forbes Jr., former senior minister at the Riverside Church in New York City; Mara Liasson, national political correspondent for NPR and Elaine Pagels, biblical scholar at Princeton University.